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Quantum interference of photon pairs from two remote trapped atomic ions

Nature Physics volume 3, pages 538–541 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Trapped atomic ions are among the most attractive implementations of quantum bits for applications in quantum-information processing, owing to their long trapping lifetimes and long coherence times. Although nearby trapped ions can be entangled through their Coulomb-coupled motion1,2,3,4,5,6, it seems more natural to entangle remotely located ions through a coupling mediated by photons, eliminating the need to control the ion motion. A promising way to entangle ions via a photonic channel is to interfere two photons emitted from the ions and then detect appropriate photon coincidence events7,8,9. Here, we report the pivotal element of this scheme in the observation of quantum interference between pairs of single photons emitted from two atomic ions residing in independent traps.

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Figure 1: The ytterbium set-up.
Figure 2: Intensity autocorrelation of the light emitted by a single ion excited by picosecond pulses.
Figure 3: Normalized intensity cross-correlation of photons emitted by two ions.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge discussions with L.-M. Duan. This work is supported by the National Security Agency and the Disruptive Technology Office under Army Research Office contract W911NF-04-1-0234, and the National Science Foundation Information Technology Research (ITR) and Physics at the Information Frontier (PIF) programs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FOCUS Center and Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA

    P. Maunz, D. L. Moehring, S. Olmschenk, K. C. Younge, D. N. Matsukevich & C. Monroe

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  1. P. Maunz
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  2. D. L. Moehring
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  3. S. Olmschenk
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Correspondence to P. Maunz.

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Maunz, P., Moehring, D., Olmschenk, S. et al. Quantum interference of photon pairs from two remote trapped atomic ions. Nature Phys 3, 538–541 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys644

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